How to Glorify God on Christmas Break

Christmas break presents some spiritual dangers for all age groups. Nobody is exempt from the spiritual warfare that comes with Christmas break. Young Christians are prone to become more and more greedy as they eagerly expect to see what lies under the tree. Christian teens are prone to playing the role of a sluggard as they take a break from all their school work and recreational activities. Christian college students are liable to fall into a world of temptation as they go back home to unhealthy friendships/relationships. Christian parents are tempted to focus less on hospitality and Christ centered time with family due to being busy-bodied with a myriad of amoral things. And this is only a sampling of the spiritual dangers that are so prevalent during the Christmas break!

And with the abounding spiritual dangers, we need to be mindful of ways to have a God honoring Christmas break that will bring much glory to Christ. With that said, here are some ideas that may help you in this endeavor.

Prioritize Spiritual Disciplines

Maintain your prayer life. We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are to be constant in prayer, abounding in thanksgiving, and interceding for other Christians (Rom. 12:12; 1 Thess. 5:18; Eph. 6:18). Christmas break is not a time to neglect this discipline, but to do it all the more!

Maintain your Bible reading. Persevere in your yearly reading. Memorize some Scripture. Make sure you are meditating on the word of the Lord consistently so that the word of Christ will be dwelling in you richly!

Maintain your family worship. This is difficult to do in the midst of the busyness of Christmas, but what better way to celebrate Christmas than to gather with your family regularly and briefly in order to worship the Lord.

Maintain faithfully attending Church. Both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve will be on Sunday this year. Don’t let this deter you from attending church. Rather, get your family/friends excited about attending church and listening to the word of God being preached.

Maintain giving generously. Christmas time tends to make us money pinchers because we have gifts to buy, places to travel, and family to host. Do not let this be the case though. Maintain tithing during the break and look for opportunities to give generously to other people.

Meet with People

If you are young, ask your parents if you can have a friend over for dinner one evening. And when they come over, make the most of it. Share a meal with them, watch a movie, and then have them participate in family worship.

If you are a college student, meet with a friend that you have not seen in a while for the purposes of having a conversation about spiritual things. Tell them what the Lord has been doing in your life throughout this past semester.

If you are a parent, ask another couple to go shopping with you. Make it exciting. Buy their meal, go get a coffee, and then do some Christmas shopping with them all the while waiting for an opportunity to speak with them about heavenly things.

Read a Good book

Pick up a book that will help you live a little more faithfully throughout 2018.

• A book on how to read the Bible
• Living by the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible
• A biography of a Christian
• Spurgeon: A New Biography
• A book on Christian living
• Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
• A book on Christ
• The Cross of Christ
• A book on the narrative of Scripture
• The Drama of Scripture
• A book on evangelism
• The Master Plan of Evangelism
• A book on prayer
• Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
• A book on work
• Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work
• A book on family worship
• A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home 

Write Spiritual Resolutions for 2018

Take time on your Christmas break to think about some spiritual goals. For example:

• Resolve to read the whole Bible in 2018
• Resolve to memorize a book of the Bible in 2018
• Resolve to develop a good relationship with a neighbor for the sake of evangelizing them.
• Resolve to serve in a particular ministry within the church.
• Resolve to spend 2 hours of your week discipling younger people.
• Resolve to become well informed in a particular area of Christian thought
• The atonement
• The life of Christ
• The death of Christ
• The resurrection of Christ
• Justification by faith alone
• The resurrection of the body

In Conclusion 

So, these are just some ideas about how we can wage spiritual warfare over Christmas break in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. And as you can tell, a bulk of what I listed are just good works for the Lord. I am quite confident that continuously devoting ourselves to good works allows us to know Christ more fully (Jn. 14:21). And it is in knowing Christ more fully that we will be able to resist the myriad of temptations that arise over Christmas break.